Patrice Émery Lumumba (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba’s government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis.[1] He was subsequently imprisoned and executed by firing squad, an act that many believe was committed with the assistance of the government of the United States and for which the Belgian government officially apologized in 2002.

Patrice Lumumba Monument

Early life and career
Lumumba was born in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo, a member of the Tetela ethnic group. Raised in a Catholic family as one of four sons, he was educated at a Protestant primary school, a Catholic missionary school, and finally the government post office training school, passing the one-year course with distinction. He subsequently worked in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) and Stanleyville (now Kisangani) as a postal clerk and as a travelling beer salesman. In 1951, he married Pauline Opangu. In 1955, Lumumba became regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he worked on editing and distributing party literature. After traveling on a three-week study tour in Belgium, he was arrested in 1955 on charges of embezzlement of post office funds. His two-year sentence was commuted to twelve months after it was confirmed by Belgian lawyer Jules Chrome that Lumumba had returned the funds, and he was released in July 1956. After his release, he helped found the broad-based Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) in 1958, later becoming the organization’s president. Lumumba and his team represented the MNC at the All-African Peoples’ Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958. At this international conference, hosted by influential Pan-African President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Lumumba further solidified his Pan-Africanist beliefs.

Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Kasavubu

Leader of MNC
In late October 1959, Lumumba as leader of the MNC was again arrested for allegedly inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville where thirty people were killed, for which he was sentenced to six months in prison. The trial’s start date of 18 January 1960, was also the first day of a round-table conference in Brussels to finalize the future of the Congo. Despite Lumumba’s imprisonment at the time, the MNC won a convincing majority in the December local elections in the Congo. As a result of pressure from delegates who were enraged at Lumumba’s imprisonment, he was released and allowed to attend the Brussels conference. The conference culminated on January 27 with a declaration of Congolese independence setting June 30, 1960, as the independence date with national elections from 11–25 May 1960. Lumumba and the MNC won this election and the right to form a government, with the announcement on 23 June 1960 of 34-year-old Lumumba as Congo’s first prime minister and Joseph Kasa-Vubu as its president. In accordance with the constitution, on 24 June the new government passed a vote of confidence and was ratified by the Congolese Chamber and Senate.

Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah

Independence Day was celebrated on June 30 in a ceremony attended by many dignitaries including King Baudouin and the foreign press. Lumumba delivered his famous independence speech after being officially excluded from the event programme, despite being the new prime minister.[3] The speech of Belgian King Baudouin praised developments under colonialism, his reference to the “genius” of his great-granduncle Leopold II of Belgium glossing over atrocities committed during the Congo Free State.[4] The King continued, “Don’t compromise the future with hasty reforms, and don’t replace the structures that Belgium hands over to you until you are sure you can do better… Don’t be afraid to come to us. We will remain by your side, give you advice.”

Lumumba responded by reminding the audience that the independence of the Congo was not granted magnanimously by Belgium:
For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that it has been won, a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood. We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.[5]
In contrast to the relatively harmless speech of President Kasa-Vubu, Lumumba’s reference to the suffering of the Congolese under Belgian colonialism stirred the crowd while simultaneously humiliating and alienating the King and his entourage. Some media claimed at the time that he ended his speech by ad-libbing, Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques! (We are no longer your monkeys!) –referring to a common slur used against Africans by Belgians, however, these words are neither in his written text nor in radio tapes of his speech.[2][6] Lumumba was later harshly criticised for what many in the Western world—but virtually none in Africa—described as the inappropriate nature of his speech.

Patrice Lumumba

Actions as Prime Minister

A few days after Congo gained its independence, Lumumba made the fateful decision to raise the pay of all government employees except for the army. Many units of the army also had strong objections toward the uniformly Belgian officers; General Janssens, the army head, told them their lot would not change after independence, and they rebelled in protest. The rebellions quickly spread throughout the country, leading to a general breakdown in law and order. Although the trouble was highly localized, the country seemed to be overrun by gangs of soldiers and looters, causing a media sensation, particularly over Europeans fleeing the country.
The province of Katanga declared independence under regional premier Moïse Tshombe on 11 July 1960 with support from the Belgian government and mining companies such as Union Minière.[9] Despite the arrival of UN troops, unrest continued. Since the United Nations refused to help suppress the rebellion in Katanga, Lumumba sought Soviet aid in the form of arms, food, medical supplies, trucks, and planes to help move troops to Katanga. Lumumba’s decisive actions alarmed his colleagues and President Kasa-Vubu, who preferred a more moderate political approach.

Patrice Lumumba

Assassination

“ Dead, living, free, or in prison on the orders of the colonialists, it is not I who counts. It is the Congo, it is our people for whom independence has been transformed into a cage where we are regarded from the outside… History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington, or the United Nations will teach, but that which they will teach in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets… a history of glory and dignity. ”

Patrice Lumumba illegally emprisoned

— Patrice Lumumba, October 1960

Deposition and arrest
In September, the President dismissed Lumumba from government. Lumumba immediately protested the legality of the President’s actions. In retaliation, Lumumba declared Kasa-Vubu deposed and won a vote of confidence in the Senate, while the newly appointed prime minister failed to gain parliament’s confidence. The country was torn by two political groups claiming legal power over the country. On 14 September, a coup d’état organised by Colonel Joseph Mobutu incapacitated both Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu.[8] Lumumba was placed under house arrest at the prime minister’s residence, although UN troops were positioned around the house to protect him. Nevertheless, Lumumba decided to rouse his supporters in Haut-Congo. Smuggled out of his residence at night, he escaped to Stanleyville, where he attempted to set up his own government and army.[12] Pursued by troops loyal to Mobutu he was finally captured in Port Francqui on 1 December 1960 and flown to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) in ropes not handcuffs. He desperately appealed to local UN troops to save him, but he was no longer their responsibility[citation needed]. Mobutu said Lumumba would be tried for inciting the army to rebellion and other crimes. United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld made an appeal to Kasa-Vubu asking that Lumumba be treated according to due process of law. The USSR denounced Hammarskjöld and the Western powers as responsible for Lumumba’s arrest and demanded his release.

Patrice Lumumba emprisoned

UN response
The UN Security Council was called into session on 7 December 1960 to consider Soviet demands that the UN seek Lumumba’s immediate release, the immediate restoration of Lumumba as head of the Congo government, the disarming of the forces of Mobutu, and the immediate evacuation of Belgians from the Congo. Hammarskjöld, answering Soviet attacks against his Congo operations, said that if the UN forces were withdrawn from the Congo “I fear everything will crumble.”
The threat to the UN cause was intensified by the announcement of the withdrawal of their contingents by Yugoslavia, the United Arab Republic, Ceylon, Indonesia, Morocco, and Guinea. The Soviet pro-Lumumba resolution was defeated on 14 December 1960 by a vote of 8-2. On the same day, a Western resolution that would have given Hammarskjöld increased powers to deal with the Congo situation was vetoed by the Soviet Union.

Patrice Lumumba

Final days
Lumumba was sent first on 3 December, to Thysville military barracks Camp Hardy, 150 km (about 100 miles) from Leopoldville. However, when security and disciplinary breaches threatened his safety, it was decided that he should be transferred to the Katanga Province.
Lumumba was forcibly restrained on the flight to Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi) on 17 January 1961.[13] On arrival, he was conducted under arrest to Brouwez House and held there bound and gagged while President Tshombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.

Death by firing squad
Later that night, Lumumba was driven to an isolated spot where three firing squads had been assembled. According to David Akerman, Ludo de Witte and Kris Hollington,[14] the firing squads were commanded by a Belgian, Captain Julien Gat, and another Belgian, Police Commissioner Verscheure, had overall command of the execution site.[15] The Belgian Commission has found that the execution was carried out by Katanga’s authorities, but de Witte found written orders from the Belgian government requesting Lumumba’s murder and documents on various arrangements, such as death squads. It reported that President Tshombe and two other ministers were present with four Belgian officers under the command of Katangan authorities. Lumumba and two other comrades from the government, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, were lined up against a tree and shot one at a time. The execution probably took place on 17 January 1961 between 21:40 and 21:43 according to the Belgian report. According to Adam Hochschild, author of a book on the Congo rubber terror, Lumumba’s body was cut up and dissolved in acid by two Belgians, so as not to leave a martyr’s grave.[16]
No statement was released until three weeks later despite rumours that Lumumba was dead.

Patrice Lumumba

Announcement of death
His death was formally announced on Katangese radio when it was alleged that he escaped and was killed by enraged villagers. On January 18, panicked by reports that the burial of the three bodies had been observed, members of the execution team went to dig up the bodies and move them to a place near the border with Rhodesia for reburial. Belgian Police Commissioner Gerard Soete later admitted in several accounts that he and his brother led the first and a second exhumation. Police Commissioner Frans Verscheure also took part. On the afternoon and evening of January 21, Commissioner Soete and his brother dug up Lumumba’s corpse for the second time, cut it up with a hacksaw, and dissolved it in concentrated sulfuric acid (de Witte 2002:140-143).[17] Only some teeth and a fragment of skull and bullets survived the process, kept as souvenirs. In an interview on Belgian television in a program on the assassination of Lumumba in 1999, Soete displayed a bullet and two teeth that he boasted he had saved from Lumumba’s body.[17] De Witte also mentions that Verscheure kept souvenirs from the exhumation: bullets from the skull of Lumumba.[18]
After the announcement of Lumumba’s death, street protests were organised in several European countries; in Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia, protesters sacked the Belgian embassy and confronted the police, and in London a crowd marched from Trafalgar Square to the Belgian embassy, where a letter of protest was delivered and where protesters clashed with police.

Patrice Lumumba

American and Belgian involvement
“Lumumba’s pan-Africanism and his vision of a united Congo gained him many enemies. Both Belgium and the United States actively sought to have him killed. The CIA ordered his assassination but could not complete the job. Instead, the United States and Belgium covertly funneled cash and aid to rival politicians who seized power and arrested Lumumba.”[20] U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had said “something [to CIA chief Allen Dulles] to the effect that Lumumba should be eliminated”.[21] This was revealed by a declassified interview with then-US National Security Council minutekeeper Robert Johnson released in August 2000 from Senate intelligence committee’s inquiry on covert action. The committee later found that while the CIA had conspired to kill Lumumba, it was not directly involved in the actual murder.

Patrice Lumumba

Church Committee
In 1975, the Church Committee went on record with the finding that Allen Dulles had ordered Lumumba’s assassination as “an urgent and prime objective” (Dulles’ own words).[22] Furthermore, declassified CIA cables quoted or mentioned in the Church report and in Kalb (1972) mention two specific CIA plots to murder Lumumba: the poison plot and a shooting plot. Although some sources claim that CIA plots ended when Lumumba was captured, that is not stated or shown in the CIA records. Rather, those records show two still-partly-censored CIA cables from Elizabethville on days significant in the murder: January 17, the day Lumumba died, and January 18, the day of the first exhumation. The former, after a long censored section, talks about where they need to go from there. The latter expresses thanks for Lumumba being sent to them and then says that, had Elizabethville base known he was coming, they would have “baked a snake”.[23] Significantly, a CIA officer told another CIA officer later that he had had Lumumba’s body in the trunk of his car to try to find a way to dispose of it.[24] This cable goes on to state that the writer’s sources (not yet declassified) said that after being taken from the airport Lumumba was imprisoned by “all white guards”

Patrice Lumumba

Belgian investigation
The Belgian Commission investigating Lumumba’s assassination concluded that (1) Belgium wanted Lumumba arrested, (2) Belgium was not particularly concerned with Lumumba’s physical well being, and (3) although informed of the danger to Lumumba’s life, Belgium did not take any action to avert his death, but the report also specifically denied that Belgium ordered Lumumba’s assassination.[26]
Under its own ‘Good Samaritan’ laws, Belgium was legally culpable for failing to prevent the assassination from taking place and was also in breach of its obligation (under U.N. Resolution 290 of 1949) to refrain from acts or threats “aimed at impairing the freedom, independence or integrity of another state.”
The report of 2001 by the Belgian Commission mentions that there had been previous U.S. and Belgian plots to kill Lumumba. Among them was a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored attempt to poison him, which may have come on orders from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.[28] CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb was a key person in this by devising a poison resembling toothpaste.[29][30][31][32] However, the plan is said to have been scrapped because the local CIA Station Chief, Larry Devlin, refused permission.[30][31][33] However, as Kalb points out in her book, Congo Cables, the record shows that many communications by Devlin at the time urged elimination of Lumumba (p. 53, 101, 129-133, 149-152, 158-159, 184-185, 195). Also, the CIA station chief helped to direct the search to capture Lumumba for his transfer to his enemies in Katanga, was involved in arranging his transfer to Katanga (p. 158, Hoyt, Michael P. 2009, “Captive in the Congo: A Consul’s Return to the Heart of Darkness”), and the CIA base chief in Elizabethville was in direct touch with the killers the night Lumumba was killed. Furthermore, a CIA agent had the body in the trunk of his car in order to try to get rid of it (p. 105, Stockwell, John 1978 In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story. Stockwell, who knew Devlin well, felt Devlin knew more than anyone else about the murder (71-72, 136-137).

Patrice Lumumba

Belgian apology
In February 2002, the Belgian government apologised to the Congolese people, and admitted to a “moral responsibility” and “an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba”.
[edit]U.S. documents
In July 2006, documents released by the United States government revealed that the CIA had plotted to assassinate Lumumba. In September 1960, Sidney Gottlieb brought a vial of poison to the Congo with plans to place it on Lumumba’s toothbrush. The plot was later abandoned. The extent to which the CIA was involved in his eventual death is currently unknown .[30]
This same disclosure showed that at that time the U.S. government believed that Lumumba was a communist.[34] Eisenhower’s reported call, at a meeting of his national security advisers, for Lumumba’s elimination must have been brought on by this perception. Both Belgium and the US were clearly influenced in their unfavourable stance towards Lumumba by the Cold War. He seemed to gravitate around the Soviet Union, although this was not because he was a communist but the only place he could find support in his country’s effort to rid itself of colonial rule.[35] The US was the first country from which Lumumba requested help.[36] Lumumba, for his part, not only denied being a Communist, but said he found colonialism and Communism to be equally deplorable, and professed his personal preference for neutrality between the East and West.

Patrice Lumumba

“ We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba’s murder should be a lesson for all of us. ”

— Che Guevara, 1964

Political
The results of his time in office are both mixed and polarising in their subsequent interpretation. To his critics, Lumumba bequeathed very few positive results from his term of office. Their critiques include his inability to promote development and failure to stave off or quell a civil war that erupted within days of his appointment as prime minister. Instead, he behaved impetuously and followed expedients rather than policies that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, including himself.[39]
To his supporters, Lumumba was an altruistic man of strong character who pursued his policies regardless of opposing viewpoints. He favoured a unitary Congo and opposed division of the country along ethnic or regional lines.[40][41] Like many other African leaders, he supported pan-Africanism and liberation for colonial territories.[42] He proclaimed his regime one of “positive neutralism,”[43] defined as a return to African values and rejection of any imported ideology, including that of the Soviet Union: “We are not Communists, Catholics, Socialists. We are African nationalists.”

2006 Congolese elections
Nevertheless, the image of Patrice Lumumba continues to serve as an inspiration in contemporary Congolese politics. In the 2006 elections, several parties claimed to be motivated by his ideas, including the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), the political party initiated by the incumbent President Joseph Kabila.[45] Antoine Gizenga, who served as Lumumba’s Deputy Prime Minister in the post-independence period, was a 2006 Presidential candidate under the Unified Lumumbist Party (Parti Lumumbiste Unifié (PALU))[46] and was named prime minister at the end of the year. Other political parties that directly utilise his name include the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba (MNC-L) and the Mouvement Lumumbiste (MLP).

Family and politics
Patrice Lumumba’s family is actively involved in contemporary Congolese politics. Patrice Lumumba was married to Pauline Lumumba and had five children; François was the eldest followed by Patrice Junior, Julienne, Roland and Guy-Patrice Lumumba. François was 10 years old when Patrice died. Before his imprisonment, Patrice arranged for his wife and children to move into exile in Egypt, where François spent his childhood, then went to Hungary for education (he holds a doctorate in political economics). He returned to Congo in 1992 to oppose Mobutu since which time he has been the leader of the Mouvement National Congolais Lumumba (MNC-L), his father’s original political party.[47]
Lumumba’s youngest son, Guy-Patrice, born six months after his father’s death, was an independent presidential candidate in the 2006 elections,[48] but received less than 10% of the vote.

The history of Berlin Conference, the division of Africa and The Congo Free State
Started in November 15, 1884, ended in February 26, 1885.

At the Berlin residence of the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, located at Reichskanzlerpalais, Wilhemstrasse 77, in November 15, 1884, the foreign ministers of thirteen European nations including Turkey and the United States established ground rules for the future exploitation of Africa and the Africans. No African nation was represented nor any African King or personality was invited at the conference, even though the conference was about Africa.
The Congo Free State, conceived as a “neutral” zone to be run by an international association in the interest of bringing science, civilization, and Christianity to the indigenous people, received the Berlin Conference’s blessings. Belgium’s King Leopold II, a man who exploited Congo’s resources and contributed to up to 10 million deaths, soon took control, reaping fabulous personal profits. Belgium extracted rubber, ivory, diamonds, and uranium from the Congo and gave back nothing: no schools, no hospitals, no infrastructure except that which facilitated the export of resources. The uranium used to make the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki came from mines in the Congo.
The European colonial powers shared one objective in their African colonies; exploitation. But in the way they governed their dependencies, they reflected their differences. Some colonial powers were themselves democracies (the United Kingdom and France); others were dictatorships (Portugal, Spain). The British established a system of indirect rule over much of their domain, leaving indigenous power structure in place and making local rulers representatives of the British Crown. This was unthinkable in the Portuguese colonies, where harsh, direct control was the rule. The French sought to create culturally assimilated elites what would represent French ideals in the colonies. In the Belgian Congo, however, King Leopold II, who had financed the expeditions that staked Belgium’s claim in Berlin, embarked on a campaign of ruthless exploitation. His enforcers mobilized almost the entire Congolese populations to gather rubber, kill elephants for their ivory, and build public works to improve export routes. For failing to meet production quotes, entire communities were massacred. Killing and maiming became routine in a colony in which horror was the only common denominator. After the impact of the slave trade, King Leopold’s reign of terror was Africa’s most severe demographic disaster. By the time it ended, after a growing outcry around the world, as many as 10 million Congolese had been murdered. In 1908 the Belgium government administrators, and the Roman Catholic Church each pursued their sometimes competing interest. But no one thought to change the name of the colonial capital: it was Leopoldville until the Belgian Congo achieved independence in 1960.

George Washington Williams – A black American soldier, minister, politician and historian. Shortly before his death he travelled to King Leopold II’s Congo Free State and his open letter to Leopold about the suffering of the region’s inhabitants at the hands of Leopold’s agents, helped to sway European and American public opinion against the regime running the Congo, under which some 10 million people lost their lives.
In this letter, he condemned the brutal and inhuman treatment the Congolese were suffering at the hands of the colonizers. He mentioned the role played by Henry M. Stanley, sent to the Congo by the King, in tricking and mistreating the Africans. Williams reminded the King that the crimes committed were all committed in his name, making him as guilty as the actual culprits. He appealed to the international community of the day to “call and create an International Commission to investigate the charges herein preferred in the name of Humanity”.

Belgian colonialism: 1908 – 1960 and Congo’s Independence

The Belgian government immediately set to work to remedy the worst excesses of the King. Belgian colonial ideology constructed the Congolese people as children who required a benign but firm hand of control. The state would ensure their wellbeing and in turn demanded their loyalty, obedience and hard work. While brutal practices such as massacres and the chopping off of hands of peasants who failed to fulfill their quotas ceased, the exploitative practices of forced labour and compulsory production were only slowly phased out.
Belgian government of the territory was an uneasy mixture of indirect rule through existing chiefdoms, which were substantially remodeled to conform to the exigencies of colonial needs, and ridged and pervasive measures of social control. The attempts to transform traditional rulers into salaried functionaries, and the endless tampering with these structures that followed on this, undermined their legitimacy and hastened their disintegration as valid expressions of indigenous civic life. The curfews, population resettlements and stringent police controls, on the other hand, engendered hostility without creating structures of enduring value.
In line with prevailing European thinking on such matters, the colony had to be made to pay for itself. Social expenditures on health, education and welfare were avoided by delegating responsibility to missionary groups (especially Catholic orders), who were encouraged to set up operations within the territory. Business interests were allowed, and even required, to exercised functions that would elsewhere be performed by the state.
The entire, rather extensive, civil service and the leadership ranks of the security forces were staffed by Europeans. No thought was given to the training of indigenous people to staff these structures at any point in the future, any more than measures taken to draw the Congolese into representation in governing councils or participation in the selection of governing agents.
Congolese docility had existed more in the minds of the colonisers than in those of the colonised. Almost all Congolese shared a history of resistance to Belgian penetration at various places and times. The emergence of the Kimbanguist Church in the 1920s was, as the Belgians themselves quickly appreciated, an act of resistance. Belgian persecution of the movement only embittered Congolese and hardened anti-Belgian attitudes.
The Second World War accelerated the social transformations already underway, urbanisation, proletarianisation and the emergence of an indigenous intelligentsia. These new social groups were neither docile nor obedient; they were easily infected with European concepts such as self-determination, democracy, socialism and nationalism.

Like other colonial powers Belgium awoke too late to the changes that had been unleashed. Reforms promulgated by the government aimed at co-opting and incorporating Congolese into governing structures were inadequate to satisfy emerging aspirations, while paradoxically reaffirming the legitimacy of those aspirations.
The consequence of all this was the emergence in the 1950s of nationalist leaders and groups among the Kongo (the ethnic Alliance of the Kongo People), in Katanga (the regional Confederation of Katanga Associations) and in the formation of the Mouvement National Congolais (led by the charismatic nationalist Patrice Lumumba.

The new nationalist movements expressed themselves in the democratically elected local structures created by Belgian reforms. When Belgian efforts at stemming the nationalist tide in Kinshasa (then Leopoldsville) provoked riots they abruptly executed a u-turn and set the Belgian Congo on a rapid timetable to independence

In Jun 30, 1960 Belgium was forced to give the Congo independence, Joseph Kasavubu was acting as the President and Patrice Lumumba was the Prime Minister of the new nation. In January 17, 1961 Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister in the Congo’s first democratically elected government, was seized, tortured, and murdered by a Colonel named Joseph Mobutu. Lumumba was considered the most brilliant of the Congolese and African leaders. In 1965 Mobutu himself seized power and, with the backing of the United States, Belgium and other western countries. Like King Leopold, Mobutu, who re-named the country Zaire, ran the economy for his own personal profit and, like the Belgians before him, left the Congo impoverished. Mobutu ruled as an absolute dictator until his overthrow by Laurent Desiré Kabila in May 1997. Kabila was a youth leader in a party allied to Patrice Lumumba in the 1960s. L.D. Kabila was shot on January 16 and died of his injuries on January 18, 2001). He was succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila who is the head of state until today.

Lumumba’s Speech

Patrice E. Lumumba The First Prime Minister of the Congo On June 30, 1960, Independence Day
Men and women of the Congo,
Victorious fighters for independence, today victorious, I greet you in the name of the Congolese Government. All of you, my friends, who have fought tirelessly at our sides, I ask you to make this June 30, 1960, an illustrious date that you will keep indelibly engraved in your hearts, a date of significance of which you will teach to your children, so that they will make known to their sons and to their grandchildren the glorious history of our fight for liberty.

For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that is was by fighting that it has been won [applause], a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood.
We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.

This was our fate for eighty years of a colonial regime; our wounds are too fresh and too painful still for us to drive them from our memory. We have known harassing work, exacted in exchange for salaries which did not permit us to eat enough to drive away hunger, or to clothe ourselves, or to house ourselves decently, or to raise our children as creatures dear to us.
We have known ironies, insults, blows that we endured morning, noon, and evening, because we are Negroes. Who will forget that to a black one said “tu”, certainly not as to a friend, but because the more honorable “vous” was reserved for whites alone?
We have seen our lands seized in the name of allegedly legal laws which in fact recognized only that might is right.
We have seen that the law was not the same for a white and for a black, accommodating for the first, cruel and inhuman for the other.

We have witnessed atrocious sufferings of those condemned for their political opinions or religious beliefs; exiled in their own country, their fate truly worse than death itself.
We have seen that in the towns there were magnificent houses for the whites and crumbling shanties for the blacks, that a black was not admitted in the motion-picture houses, in the restaurants, in the stores of the Europeans; that a black traveled in the holds, at the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.
Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our brothers perished, the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of oppression and exploitation were thrown [applause]?
All that, my brothers, we have endured.
But we, whom the vote of your elected representatives have given the right to direct our dear country, we who have suffered in our body and in our heart from colonial oppression, we tell you very loud, all that is henceforth ended.
The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed, and our country is now in the hands of its own children.
Together, my brothers, my sisters, we are going to begin a new struggle, a sublime struggle, which will lead our country to peace, prosperity, and greatness.
Together, we are going to establish social justice and make sure everyone has just remuneration for his labor [applause].
We are going to show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom, and we are going to make of the Congo the center of the sun’s radiance for all of Africa.

We are going to keep watch over the lands of our country so that they truly profit her children. We are going to restore ancient laws and make new ones which will be just and noble.
We are going to put an end to suppression of free thought and see to it that all our citizens enjoy to the full the fundamental liberties foreseen in the Declaration of the Rights of Man [applause].

We are going to do away with all discrimination of every variety and assure for each and all the position to which human dignity, work, and dedication entitles him.
We are going to rule not by the peace of guns and bayonets but by a peace of the heart and the will [applause].
And for all that, dear fellow countrymen, be sure that we will count not only on our enormous strength and immense riches but on the assistance of numerous foreign countries whose collaboration we will accept if it is offered freely and with no attempt to impose on us an alien culture of no matter what nature [applause].

In this domain, Belgium, at last accepting the flow of history, has not tried to oppose our independence and is ready to give us their aid and their friendship, and a treaty has just been signed between our two countries, equal and independent. On our side, while we stay vigilant, we shall respect our obligations, given freely.

Thus, in the interior and the exterior, the new Congo, our dear Republic that my government will create, will be a rich, free, and prosperous country. But so that we will reach this aim without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens, to help me with all your strength.

I ask all of you to forget your tribal quarrels. They exhaust us. They risk making us despised abroad.
I ask the parliamentary minority to help my Government through a constructive opposition and to limit themselves strictly to legal and democratic channels.
I ask all of you not to shrink before any sacrifice in order to achieve the success of our huge undertaking.
In conclusion, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and the property of your fellow citizens and of foreigners living in our country. If the conduct of these foreigners leaves something to be desired, our justice will be prompt in expelling them from the territory of the Republic; if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they also are working for our country’s prosperity.

The Congo’s independence marks a decisive step towards the liberation of the entire African continent [applause].
Sire, Excellencies, Mesdames, Messieurs, my dear fellow countrymen, my brothers of race, my brothers of struggle– this is what I wanted to tell you in the name of the Government on this magnificent day of our complete independence.
Our government, strong, national, popular, will be the health of our country.
I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a prosperous national economy which will assure our economic independence.
Glory to the fighters for national liberation!
Long live independence and African unity!
Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!
[applause, long and loud]

Climate:
tropical; hot and humid in equatorial river basin; cooler and drier in southern highlands; cooler and wetter in eastern highlands; north of Equator – wet season (April to October), dry season (December to February); south of Equator – wet season (November to March), dry season (April to October)

Natural hazards:
periodic droughts in south; Congo River floods (seasonal); in the east, in the Great Rift Valley, there are active volcanoes
volcanism: Nyiragongo (elev. 3,470 m), which erupted in 2002 and is experiencing ongoing activity, poses a major threat to the city of Goma, home to a quarter of a million people; the volcano produces unusually fast-moving lava, known to travel up to 100 km /hr; Nyiragongo has been deemed a “Decade Volcano” by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior, worthy of study due to its explosive history and close proximity to human populations; its neighbor, Nyamuragira, which erupted in 2010, is Africa’s most active volcano; Visoke is the only other historically active volcano

The Democratic Republic of Congo, originated from the “Kingdom of Kongo”, once known as Zaire (today, Democratic Republic of Congo) has been the subject of instability, wars and division since the Berlin Act. Congo is the most riches country in the world due to its natural resources and its estimated to have $24 trillion (equivalent to the combined Gross Domestic Product of Europe and the United States) worth of untapped deposits of raw mineral ores, including the world’s largest reserves of cobalt and other minerals such as copper, diamond, gold, silver, uranium, manganese, tin, zinc, lead, tantalite, germanium, oil etc.

DR Congo's reedfrog

The Congo is the Earth’s second largest river by volume and has the world’s second largest rainforest (18% of the planet’s remaining tropical rainforest).
The Congo Basin represents 70% of the African continent’s plant cover and makes up a large portion of Africa’s biodiversity with over 600 tree species and 10 000 animal species.
The DR Congo has vast agricultural potential; if unleashed, this potential could significantly reduce poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, which affect more than 70% of the African population. The Congo’s fertile fields and tropical forests cover an area bigger than United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany combined; and can feed the whole of central and part of southern Africa.

The Congo is home to the mighty and ancient yet intact rainforest on the planet. Covering an area more than twice the size of France (1.3 million square kilometers or 358 million acres), DR Congo’s rainforest is the second largest area of contiguous moist tropical forest left in the world and represent approximately one fifth of the world’s remaining closed canopy tropical forest.

This vast area hosts a wealth of biodiversity, including over 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, and three of the world’s four species of great apes; and provide livelihoods for over 50 million people. Congo’s rainforest also play an important role in both biodiversity protection and global climate stability: 8% of the earth’s carbon that is stored in living forests worldwide is stored in the forests of the DR Congo – that is more than any other country in Africa and makes the Congo the fourth largest forest carbon reservoir of any country in the world.
The DR Congo is rich in rivers with untapped reserves of gas, oil and hydro-electric capacity, and largest diversity of fishes.
Why Congo’s Problem Is Your Problem?

Deforestation-in-DRC

It is very important to understand that the problem of the DR Congo is the problem of the world. Without security and stability in the Congo, mineral such as “Uranium” could easily end up in the hands of irresponsible people or government. This of course will have devastating consequences.

More than 80% of the world’s supply of “Coltan” come from DR Congo, which the UN says is subject to “highly organized and systematic exploitation.” Coltan is a heat resistant powder, metallic tantalum which has unique properties for storing electrical charge (tantalum capacitors) which is used in mobile phones, laptop etc.

There are thousands of people dying, mostly children and women in the Congo. According to the recent UN report and US scientists, an average of 48 women and girls aged 15-49 are raped every hour. The genocide in Congo has left over 8 million deaths, therefore it is in the best interest of humanity that we put an end to the tragic history of “127 years” of pain, slavery, exploitation, wars and on going conflicts.

Mr Abraham Yambuya and Mr Didier Kussu at the Conference for the Total Independence of the Congo, Berlin Nov 15, 2011

THIS IS ONE OF A KIND EVENT, WHICH IN THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, THE CONGOLESE ARE READY TO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY OF THEIR ACTIONS AND TAKE THE DESTINY OF THEIR COUNTRY IN THEIR OWN HANDS.

WE, THE CONGOLESE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DECLARE A TOTAL INDEPENDENCE OF OUR COUNTRY BY CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING THE SAME DATE AND CITY WHICH THE BODIES, MINDS AND SPIRITS OF OUR ANCESTORS HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED, IN BERLIN.

LETS FREE THE CONGO, NOW OR NEVER.

Conference’s aim:

Today, the Congo “again” is still facing the biggest threat ever in its history. The enemies of the Congo are decided to pursuit what they always wanted which is to divide our great nation “the Democratic Republic of the Congo” in order to better controlled and exploit the natural riches of the Congo.

The enemies of the Congo are playing the same game of creating division among the Congolese leaders and their supporters which they hope as result will create chaos that will bring instability in the country. The rational is to frustrate the Congolese population to the point that they become extremely desperate so that any form of resolution that the so-called “the international community” will come out with, the Congolese people will have no other option than to accept it, since they have been going through a lot of pain, wars, rape, poverty and so on.

Again, They are planning the use the election as a platform in which they will use to bring instability in the country. Their assessments are that; no matter what the result of the election would be, the congolese are already divided, which means, if the current government wins, the opposition will not accept it which will provoke protest and lead to chaos and insecurity in the country. Vice Versa is the same, and if the election has been postponed this will also lead to the same result which has already been programmed. At the same time, they are carefully trying to find congolese who will be willing to separate their region/province from the central government in Kinshasa and claim that they want to be independent from Kinshasa for different reasons.

What Will Be “THAT RESOLUTION”

To divide the Democratic Republic of Congo

What Can We Do?
Dialogue “inter-Congolais” to promote UNITY and warn every Congolese of the consequences in the event that we are not united. We are informing and advising every political leader, religious leader, entrepreneur, public personality, community leader and every Congolese who cares about the future of our mighty country to come to Berlin, Germany in November 15, 2011 at the Luxurious hotel Concorde.